My GoogleEDU and MicrosoftEDU Blog Entry Roundup

Over at TCEA TechNotes blog this year, I’ve written quite a few blog entries. Are any of you reading them?

A BEE’S PERSPECTIVE
My total blog entries at TCEA are at 232 (although that will change since I have a third part in my series on When Disaster Strikes pending review and scheduling for publication). I wrote 134 of those 232 during 2017. I had hoped to write 365, but webinars, F2F workshops kept me having fun in different ways. Oh well. That will be my 2018 New Year’s Resolution (prob not).

For fun, I thought I’d take a look back and list all the 2017 blog entries I’ve written relevant to Google and Microsoft.

LET THE WAR of ROSES BEGIN
Alas, it is a war replete with the sweet aroma of constant growth. Both Google and Microsoft distinguished themselves in adding new features in response to educator demand. Neither suite of tools is perfect, though some will argue the point.

Now, before you claim I’m partisan to one over the other, remember that I am both a Google Certified Trainer and a Microsoft Certified Master Trainer. As such, I get to see the best (and worst) of both ecosystems. Both Google and Microsoft are working hard to ensure school districts have the very best they can offer in tools and skills.

More important than the efforts of profit-earning organizations, are the communities of educators who work tirelessly to make all this technology usable in the classroom. I salute my fellow GCTs, MIEs, MIEEs, and others.

In the spirit of recapping my 2017 year, here is a list of all my TCEA blog entries that address Google and Microsoft. Ok, coming back to write this sentence after listing all the blog entries. Wow, I wrote 72 blog entries featuring Google and Microsoft. That’s a chunk of the total blog entries (134) that I wrote all year. That’s 54% of my blog entries were about Google and Microsoft.

Disclaimer: Hey, before you whip out a calculator, this is “evening math” at the end of a long work day. Some blog entries were counted twice since they featured both Google and Microsoft content. No big deal, but that means some of my percents may be off. Oh well. I don’t really care if I’m off a few points. I know, terrible attitude. Call me a curmudgeon.

WHAT IS THE COUNT?

In case you’re curious (I know I was), here’s the total count:

•  Google: Regarding Google Suites for Education, I wrote 26 of the 50 Google-centric blog entries published at TCEA. That’s 19% of the total blog entries I wrote or roughly half of all blog entries written this year (134) that were included in the 2017 Google Blog Roundup.
• Microsoft: For Microsoft, I wrote 46 total for the 2017 school year. That’s 34% of total blog entries written.

Ok, I’m not a math whiz. I hope I got the percentages right. Still, I’m amazed at the quantity and diversity of these. For example, I’d predict that my favorite Microsoft blog entries were about OneDrive, Minecraft, and OneNote. Yes, these three are my top favorite tools.

If I had time, I’d organize these for you more prettily, but for that, you’ll just have to visit the TCEA TechNotes blog and check out the 2017 Blog Roundup for Google and Microsoft. Those will be due out by the end of the year. In the meantime, I hope you find something interesting to read below. I can honestly say that my colleagues wrote better Google related blog entries than I.

Note: I’ve highlighted my favorite blog entries. Special thanks to TCEA for giving me a platform to share my insights and takeaways.

Microsoft Blog Entries (46)

1. Fantastic Voyage: Minecraft Lesson Planning
2. Five Steps to Game-based Learning
3. Open Resources for Math and Science
4. Minecraftian Strategies with Marzano
5. Improved Teaching with Microsoft
6. Forms Smackdown: Google vs Microsoft
7. Ten Ways to Customize Microsoft Classroom 
8. Using OneDrive to Backup Your iOS Camera 
9. Engaging Learners with MS Forms 
10. Five OneDrive Tips You Can’t Live Without 
11. Designing Minecraft Spaces 
12. Multimedia ELL Assessment 
13. Minecraft: Education Edition Tutorial Videos 
14. Visualizing Our Understanding with Graphic Organizers 
15. Seven Keys to Blended Learning 
16. Gamifying OneNote Learning 
17. Podcasting with Microsoft Sway
18. Shifting the Conversation: Basic Tech Skills 
19. No More Death by Powerpoint 
20. Transform Learning with Text to Speech
21. Get Organized: Productivity Tips for OneNote 
22. Creating Worlds of Tomorrow 
23.  It’s Microsoft Morphing Time
24. Moviemaker is Dead; Long Live Story Remix
25. Windows 10 Tips & Tricks
26. Enhancing Parental Access with OneNote Class Notebook
27. Remix the 5E Model with PBL and Technology 
28. Farewell Docs.com, Hello Enhanced OneNote, Forms, etc.
29. Microsoft Classroom Assignments 
30. Virtual Space Construction Workers 
31. Saving High School Seniors’ Work  
32. Collaborative Projects in PBL
33. Securing Data in Cloud Storage
34. Tablet Trek: Tablets in the Classroom
35. New Powerpoint Translator Makes Captioning Possible 
36. Get Current on Tech Learning  
37. Teaching Digital Media
38. Checklists: Scaffolding Metacognitive Awareness 
39. HyperNotes? Use Hyperdocs with OneNote
40. Creative Commons: Make OER Simple 
41. TCEA’s New Minecraft Certification Course (Level 1)
42. Windows 10 Fall Creators Update: Moviemaker Lives 
43. Creating Six-Word Memoirs 
44. MS Office Goes Chrome, er, Android 
45. Twitter Takeaways: OneNote Class Notebook — Scheduled for publication 12/12/17
46. Our 2017 Microsoft Resource Roundup — Scheduled for publication 12/27/17

Google (26)

1. New Chromebook Features
2. Free G Suite Curriculum 
3. Forms Smackdown: Google vs Microsoft
4.  Beautify and Protect Your Virtual Home: Google Chrome
5. Transform Learning with Text to Speech
6. Phishing Attack: Evil Google Email
7. Connect with Google Certified Administrators 
8. Podcasting Resources
9. Saving High School Seniors’ Work   
10. Managing All Your Email
11. New Google Sites ePortfolios 
12.  Securing Data in Cloud Storage
13. Tablet Trek: Tablets in the Classroom
14. Get Current on Tech Learning 
15. Research Tools for Young Learners  
16. Teaching Digital Media 
17. Empower Learners with Hyperdocs 
18. Checklists: Scaffolding Metacognitive Awareness
19. Hyperdrawings with Joli Boucher 
20. Creative Commons: Make OER Simple 
21. Math Tools for Chrome 
22. Digital Whiteboard Solutions 
23. Provide Custom Email Updates for Parent Communications 
24. Three Tips for Google Suites Updates
25. Twitter Takeaways: Five Google Tips 
26. Animated GIFs: Education in Motion

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

AL DíA: Animal Webcams

Check out Google Earth’s live cams and learn how to use them in the classroom.

There are many ways to incorporate livecams in the classroom. Explore Google Earth’s Brown Bear Livecams and take students on a learning journey to Alaska…Google collaborated with Explore.org to offer “Bear Livecams” in Google Earth. If you are a fan of live video feeds and like to use them to engage your students in learning, then your class will definitely have to check out the Alaskan brown bear livecams. 

Image Source: https://www.kiplinger.com/kipimages/pages/16411.jpg

via Sprinkle Innovation

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Go #Phish: Front Row Seat on Google Docs Attack Vector

Nothing like having  a front row seat on the Google Phishing scam that hit Texas school districts (not to mention lots of other folks) today!

Read my take on it at http://ly.tcea.org/gophish

http://ly.tcea.org/gophish 

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

4 Tips for Discovering Cloud Service Outages

Wait, you didn’t know your favorite cloud service was down? While many of us rely on a negative experience to clue us in that our beloved cloud service is down, there are other approaches we can take to find out.

Image Source

Approach #1 – Negative Experience
I experienced this firsthand today, as I was attending the Internet of Things (IoT) Action with Microsoft (follow the hashtag at #iotinactionms) and trying to save my audio recordings to OneDrive. I found wondering, “Who else is suffering this?”

Approach #2 – Internet Search Engine
Not surprisingly, a two second internet search on your favorite engine may get you some information. For example, I stumbled on my OneDrive outage pretty quickly!

Source: DownDetector

DownDetector tracks more than just Microsoft, though. You can see their complete list here and may be much more effective tool to use than just doing an internet search. Some of my favorites include Amazon, Apple App Store, Blogger (perish the thought that my blog platform would suffer an outage!), Facebook, Apple Facetime and many more!

Approach #3 – Twitter Commiseration
One of the quickest searches you can do is to simply tweet at your solution partner and see if they have shared any bad news. For many vendors, we may not know who to contact. But, if you know, then it’s definitely worth reaching out. For example, here’s the response my tweet received:

As you can see, OneNoteEDU not only let me know there was a problem, they provided a link to a better source of information! Remember, when there is an outage, it isn’t about yelling and screaming, only an effort to find out what’s going on. You can see I avoided legendary twitter complaint type. My intent and goal was to share my sorrow at being unable to access MONTHS of OneNote notebooks I host on OneDrive…and which aren’t backed up anywhere. A loss of those notebooks would be catastrophic.

Approach #4 – Status Dashboards
No matter what service you are using, I suspect that somewhere, somehow, there’s a place where you can go check on the status. For example, check out these dashboards (click vendor names to view dashboards) from Microsoft and Google Suites, respectively.

View dashboard

View dashboard | Office 365 admins can login to see more

Wrap-Up

What approach would you take? I hope these 4 approaches will work for you and save you some time and effort when your favorite service encounters an error. In the meantime, I was unable to access OneNote Notebooks during the outage (which appears to have ended as I was writing this blog entry), which affects the following notebooks that are widely shared:

• TCEA Connect! – features all my resources for my work with TCEA.org, a veritable treasure trove for educators!

• Technology Leadership Summit 2016 – This contains all the resources for the TCEA 2016 Leadership Summit held December 9, 2016. I’m looking forward to sharing the 2017 Summit resources (sign up for the May 12th Summit on Internet of Things)
• Lots more.
• TCEAMEE – This is my Minecraft OneNote notebook. Fortunately, this one is up!

MGFolio – This is my ePortfolio,which I decided to put into OneNote because the new Google Sites wasn’t quite up to snuff, and the migration tool (to migrate my old Google Sites ePortfolio) was not yet available. I have to admit that I really like OneNote as an ePortfolio tool.

Yay, all’s well that ends well! All my sites are back up again!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

The Power of YET! Meme – Google Educator Level 2

MEME INVITATION: Here’s an invitation. Use this template in Google Draw (or make your own, like these Growth Mindset Cats by Laura Gibbs) to make your own Power of…YET poster each day this week, reflecting on YOUR own fixed mindsets. Then share that on your blog or via twitter/Instagram (tag it #yetpower) and post it in the comments. Won’t that be fun?

I had a bit of fun reflecting on Google Educator Level 2 experience I had in December and came up with this Power of YET! to capture some of the topics I recall and pulled from the sample exam questions….It’s also fun to make one of these because you have to ask yourself, “What is that I don’t know about yet?” Yes, this is pretty low-level how-to, but it could be fun to also use this as a way to get folks thinking about what they don’t know how to do yet.

Dealing with how-to is pretty great because it’s low stress…for most folks. “I don’t know how to do something so how can I learn how?” The answer is easy for how-to questions; watch YouTube. For deeper issues (e.g. biases, mindsets that are based on emotions/feelings rather than facts and information), Power of YET becomes a lot more controversial. Making your own Power of YET that inventories those internal biases can be tough.

Of course, it’s tougher if someone else inventories your biases for you! Better to do your own.

Scenarios

1. YouTube Annotations:
   “Jennifer,” said Superintendent Charlie, “I’m so grateful that you recorded that staff development presentation at Central Office and put it on YouTube. I know that there are several key components in the video that folks may want to jump to rather than sit through the long introduction I gave.”
   “Would it help if we added a hyperlinked table of contents to the front of the video?” Jennifer asked with a smile.
   “Yes,” said Charlie. “Gotta run! Let me know when it’s there so I can mention it…maybe even at the district gathering!”
   “Yes, sir,” replied Jennifer. Then she sighed. “How am I going to add hyperlinks to a Youtube video? Where is a Google Educator Level 2 Certified person when you need one?”
2. Google Scholar:
   “Today, class,” said Ms. Rosen, “we’re going to be conducting research on immigration.”
   “Are we going to build a wall?” asked Nezio.
   “No, no,” she said without inflection. “Colonial immigration patterns played a key role in the short immigration video we’re watching later today. What is a tool that we’ve used recently to get information on immigration trends in colonial times?”
   “Google Scholar?” inquired Arminda.
   “Yes, exactly. Let’s take a moment and use Scholar to research laws during colonial times. Use your Big6 organizer.”
   
   
3. Google Tour Builder:
   Take a moment to read this blog entry on Google Research and Tour Builder. Explore Google Tour Builder and build a virtual tour of your own family’s migration patterns in the U.S. to the best of your knowledge. This can include cross-country moves and involve any scope of time (e.g. ancestors or just your life if you’ve moved a lot). Be sure to include a picture/video and text for each.
4. Achieve Inbox Zero:
   You are getting tons of email from work colleagues. That’s not so bad, but you’re losing track of the “important” emails from your supervisor and grade level team. Investigate how Google Labels, filters and/or Groups could be used to better manage your incoming email. Create a short how-to screencast demonstrating how you’ve sorted your inbox with labels for Dr. Jackson, Mr. Green, and a Google Group for your grade level.

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Forms Smackdown: Google & Microsoft

Collecting data via online forms has never been easier. New web-based form tools have revolutionized how we gather and analyze data, making arcane database-backed web tools obsolete.

Note: This blog entry originally published by TCEA TechNotes blog. Read other awesome blog entries by the TCEA team online at www.tcea.org/blog

Even the next generation of database-backed web tools (e.g. Airtable, Obvibase, more solutions) find themselves catering to power users, rather than teachers and students. These descendants of venerable desktop database tools (e.g. Filemaker Pro, Microsoft Access, Alpha IV, Paradox) require some knowledge of databases and how they work. Google Forms and Microsoft Forms drop database complexity and make it easier for K-12 and adult learners to focus on the task rather than the method.

Practical Uses of Forms in K-12 Schools

The uses of forms to support teaching, learning and leading are legion. While you can see 81 Interesting Ways to Use Forms in the Classroom, here are a few of my favorite uses:

• Gather data about a particular phenomena or event and then use the data for analysis by staff and/or students.
• Conduct climate surveys to get insights into staff perspectives about the work place.
• Enable participants to craft self-assessments for appraisal or growth purposes.
• Get insights from staff/students/community into home technology and/or social media use.
• Employ forms for formative assessment activities, such as exit tickets.
• Set up a help desk system to track requests for support.

You can find even more uses online in these TCEA TechNotes articles on the use of forms. Remember, you can easily adapt the uses of forms across the tools available. Find the one that works best in your environment (e.g. Google or Office 365).

Are you a Texas educator using Office 365 in your District? Join the free, open to members and non-members TCEA Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Facebook group!

Feature Comparison

Both Microsoft and Google Forms have a wealth of features. Let’s explore some of those features, keeping in mind that they are rapidly changing.

Feature	Microsoft Forms	Google Forms
Web link	View Microsoft Forms	View Google Forms
Account required	Free Office 365 account or School Office 365 account	Personal Google account^ or Google Suites for Education account
Multiple question types	Includes: Choice (multiple choice and checkboxes) Quiz Text (short and long answer) Rating (linear scale and star choice up to 10) Date	Includes: Choice (multiple choice and checkboxes) Multiple choice grid Quiz Text (short and long answer) Rating (linear scale and star choice up to 10) Date Time File upload^
Embed media such as videos/images	Images YouTube	Images YouTube
Add subtitle description	Yes	Yes^
Option to shuffle responses	Yes	Yes for any questions containing multiple responses^
Add question to quiz computation	Yes, add any question to a quiz	Yes, create a self-grading quiz
Add other option to available responses	Yes	Yes
Organize form elements in sections	No	Yes
Adjust theme to reflect color of choice or available background image	Yes	Yes, and includes option to insert one’s own image
Preview form using built-in desktop or mobile	Yes	No, but features responsive web design
Re-order questions at any time	Yes, with up/down arrows	Yes, drag-and-drop
Copy/duplicate question	Yes	Yes
Delete or trash question	Yes	Yes
Organize question into multiple pages	No	Yes, insert page breaks after questions
Branching responses	Yes, dependent upon response chosen	Yes, with the ability to send to a different page.
Share form online	Yes, includes the following: Link provided for copying Embed into OneNote Notebook Page Email link QR code download Web page embedding	Yes, includes the following: Link provided for copying Share form link via email Web page embedding Social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) link sharing
Tracking form completion	Yes, tracking is possible if user is required to login to access the form	Yes, tracking is possible if user is required to login to access the form
Export results as a spreadsheet	Yes, results can be exported to Excel sheet (and other formats from there) and saved for further analysis or placed online	Yes, results can be exported in various formats
Form data at rest can be interacted with (Google Sheets tab is similar to an Excel Workbook sheet)	No, form data can be printed or deleted but not create a live workbook sheet that can be used, interacted with on another sheet	Yes, form data on one Google Sheets tab can be linked and interacted with another tab
Set start and end dates at specific times for when the form is open or closed for access	Yes, by date and time	No, form must be manually shut down to stop receiving responses. FormLimiter add-on can be enabled, however^.
When form is NOT accepting responses, create a custom message as to why	Yes	Yes^
Handling of individual or summary responses	Yes, options to form creator include viewing, deleting, printing individual and/or summary responses. In summary view, responses are aggregated and appear with graphs when appropriate.	Yes, options include viewing of individual and summary responses. Summary view includes aggregate results with graphs. Removing individual responses may require accessing the Google Sheet where Form responses are archived.
View average completion time for the form	Yes	No

^Special thanks to Eric Curts (@ericcurts; Ctrl-Alt-Achieve) for his feedback and corrections indicated with this symbol.

Update 01/26/2017: Microsoft Forms Enhancements

Microsoft Forms is in the process of rolling out enhancements, as reported by Brandon Cornwell (@CornwellEdTech; Tacoma, WA schools), that include the following NEW features not included in the chart above:

1. Print summaries of MS Forms charts are now possible.
2. Individual quizzes featuring student responses, scores and feedback are printable by the teacher.
3. Extra credit points can now be alloted.
4. Teachers can post scores, enabling students to to view their quiz score and obtain feedback.
5. Students can be provided feedback regarding their form responses.
6. Individual items can now be scored.
7. Specific value formats (e.g. number) can now feature data entry restrictions.
8. Math symbols and equation creator are available in quiz mode.
9. Form creators are prompted as to whether Form or Quiz is planned.

Reflections

Microsoft Forms features have expanded (e.g. a recent addition is collaborative form editing, a feature Google Forms also enjoys) since a preview launch in the summer of 2016. In important ways, it has achieved parity with Google Forms. In other ways, it may have outpaced Google Forms. For educators in Office 365 districts, Microsoft Forms represents a fantastic tool. Given the prompt development of both products, the feature gap will not endure long!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

New Chromebook Features

On January 24, 2017, Google announced some powerful enhancements for Chromebooks available for education, both for educators and students. These features (available in devices from Acer, Asus, HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung) enhance the Chromebook’s versatility. With more than 20 million teachers and students employing Chromebooks, both will soon have access to devices that rely on “apps, stylus, and increased touch capabilities,” as well as USB-C charging (source).

Note: This blog entry originally published by TCEA TechNotes blog. Read other awesome blog entries by the TCEA team online at www.tcea.org/blog

For Teachers

For teachers, Chromebooks will come with world-facing cameras. This enables teachers, as well as students, to capture videos and photos from all directions. Teachers will also have access to many Android apps, as well as specially designed cloud apps. These include Adobe Creative Cloud apps (such as Photoshop Mix, Lightroom Mobile, Illustrator Draw, Photoshop Sketch, Adobe Comp CC, and Creative Cloud Mobile). Teachers will be able to combine these intelligent enhancements with Chromebooks. They can use just-announced Google Classroom notifications for better assignment management and tracking with the new models.

Chromebooks for Students

Students, in addition to a greater variety of bundled Android apps, will be able to enjoy access to creative applications:

• Explain Everything: An incredible, robust presentation, digital whiteboard app, and video annotation tool that is indispensable.
• Soundtrap: This web-enabled audio editing and podcasting tool is a much needed addition for Chromebooks.
• WeVideo: A browser-based video editing solution that, like audio editing, remains in high demand in Chromebook environments.

All these solutions are available at discounted pricing for schools.

Even more exciting, especially in math and other classes where drawing is involved, students are able to take advantage of the inexpensive, high-quality stylus. This is an advantage when using the Google Classroom Android app. Styluses can be shared or easily replaced if lost since they do not require charging or pairing with a Chromebook.

Thanks to Google for continually listening to educators about the needs of the Chromebook-powered classroom!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Teleprompter Needed?

There are a million uses for teleprompters in every and any situation you can think of. In fact, if I could, I’d have a teleprompter every time I spoke to a large group. It’s quite reassuring to know what to say, when.

No doubt, you can think of lots of teleprompter uses in the classroom. Of course, using teleprompters shown above is crazy. What could you use instead? An inexpensive Chromebook and a free add-on perhaps.

The goal of this quick post is merely to point out two available Chrome add-ons you can use. Each includes a short description from the Chrome Store:

TelePrompter

Adjustable automatic page scrolling with mouse and keyboard shortcuts.
It’s easy to use this extension to automatically scroll any page while you read your favorite articles.
A few great features in this chrome extension:
✓ Adjustable min/max and initial scroll speed through options.
✓ Both the use of mouse and keyboard to control the scrolling.
✓ Change scroll direction with both the keyboard and mouse wheel.
✓ Toggle scrolling with a quick double click.
✓ Auto scroll start on page loads.

TellyPrompter

Simple, free teleprompter. Paste text into editor window, and click “Start Presenting”.

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Dystopian Learning: No Matter What the Device

“You’re just a shill for Google,” a district colleague joked when I shared I had been selected to participate in the Google Certified Innovator program in 2010. I laughed for a moment. If that moment was funny, the fact that I became a Microsoft Innovative Education (MIE) Expert in 2016 must generate a few more chuckles. And some wondered at my efforts with a 1:1 Apple iPad classroom. Work in education, you soon find yourself avoiding a dystopian, technology singularity.

The Big Three, which includes Apple, Google, and Microsoft (let’s refer to them as AGM going forward), are competing for space in today’s classrooms. Each boasts new, powerful software, hardware, and online spaces that bridge the learning gap for educators around the world. From Apple’s Distinguished Educator (ADE)  to Google Certified Trainer to Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Trainer, each program connects you to a vibrant community of educators.

AGM’s respective efforts involve getting educators to adopt education versions of their consumer technologies. While claims of classroom transformations must be taken with a grain of salt, there are real benefits. Let’s explore some of the benefits below.

Drink the Kool-Aid!

“Have you drunk the kool-aid?” When you drink the kool-aid, you suspend your cynicism of AGM’s intentions. Instead, you embrace problem-solving with the technologies at your disposal. The more active the AGM-affiliated educator community, the better off you are. These communities connect via various social media, email lists, and face-to-face gatherings. All are focused on helping you bring the power of their technologies to bear on overcoming learning challenges.

Solving Learning Challenges

How would you approach the problem below?

Students need to adapt propaganda techniques seen in presidential candidate advertising. After analyzing those techniques in several video segments, students must create their own version. The version will connect to their reading of TIM, Defender of Earth, a dystopian novel featuring a dinosaur in a world-saving battle with nanobots.

How would you approach this from your particular AGM perspective? For fun, let’s jump right in and see (i  alphabetical order):

Apple

Students could collect video clips, recording relevant clips using the iPad’s built-in camera. They must provide a brief analysis of the propaganda techniques in the video, then transition to their application of the techniques to a TIM, Defender of Earth main character. They could use one of these free apps (Shadow Puppet EDU or Touchcast) to create narrated video clips and then stitch the production together in iMovie ($4.99), Videocraft ($3) or Pinnacle Studio Pro ($13). Videos would be turned into the class Seesaw account (free), appearing on the Class Seesaw Blog after the teacher approved them. Students in other groups could offer feedback via the Seesaw app on their iPads.

That’s one approach to solving this challenge using Apple. Let’s take a look at another way.

Google Suite

After reviewing YouTube versions of commercials and advertisements, students decide to use video annotation tools built into YouTube. They annotate parts of the video, highlighting the parts that exemplify a certain technique. Upon completion, students organize a Google Slide featuring still images, incorporating a comic strip storyboarded in Google Draw, and a video they recorded to YouTube using either their mobile phone with the YouTube Capture or their Chromebook’s webcam with ClipChamp extension($49 per classroom per year). Other students incorporate audio into their Google Slides presentation by recording voice-overs using Nimbus Screenrecording extension (free). And others might use Adobe Spark (free) or WeVideo ($250 per classroom per year) online.

Microsoft

Students might create a OneNote notebook, providing a written analysis of several videos from YouTube and Vimeo. They can copy and paste the video link (a.k.a. embedding) into a OneNote page, the video appearing for viewing. Then they use their MS Surface Pro 4 tablets to record a video rendition of their advertising. They could blend propaganda tips into the video and then add their explanation of what they did. As a final step, they create a view link for their OneNote Notebook. This makes it possible for anyone with an Internet browser to view the OneNote Online. Their teacher can make a class Sway highlighting the published products and share it online via Docs.com. Students with special needs are able to interact with the OneNote Notebooks their classmates create using the Learning Tools add-in.

Conclusion

You may have seen several possible ways to overcome the learning challenges in the scenario presented. In fact, like most educators, you imagined ways for all technologies to co-exist and empower students. Settling on only one technology may lead to an unwanted dystopian learning situation. Consider blending technologies instead. With that in mind, what would your technology classroom utopia look like? Please share in the comments!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Learning In Spite of That iPad, Chromebook, Surface

Check out my latest blog entry over at the TCEA TechNotes Blog! I had a lot of fun writing it. The problem I write about in this entry remains a pressing concern for many educators. 

“You’re just a shill for Google,” a district colleague joked when I shared I had been selected to participate in the Google Certified Innovator program in 2010. I laughed for a moment. If that moment was funny, the fact that I became a Microsoft Innovative Education (MIE) Expert in 2016 must generate a few more chuckles. And some wondered at my efforts with a 1:1 Apple iPad classroom. Work in education, you soon find yourself avoiding a dystopian, technology singularity.

The Big Three, which includes Apple, Google, and Microsoft (let’s refer to them as AGM going forward), are competing for space in today’s classrooms. Each boasts new, powerful software, hardware, and online spaces that bridge the learning gap for educators around the world. From Apple’s Distinguished Educator (ADE)  to Google Certified Trainer to Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Trainer, each program connects you to a vibrant community of educators.

AGM’s respective efforts involve getting educators to adopt education versions of their consumer technologies. While claims of classroom transformations must be taken with a grain of salt, there are real benefits. Let’s explore some of the benefits below.

Read the Rest online at TCEA TechNotes Blog!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure